Leave a twig for the birds to perch on... don't let the capitalists do your thinking for you... if you are in northern Minnesota, stop on in; the coffee is always hot and the cookie jar is full... looking forward to the day when the real decisions in America are made by working class families gathered around the kitchen table... new postings daily...Yours in the struggle...Alan L. Maki

Anyone who doesn't believe there is a
“Cost-of-Living Crisis” obviously hasn't gone grocery
shopping, filled up their car with gas or paid an insurance premium,
rent or an electric or utility bill recently or looked at the
interest charged on their credit cards.

The capitalist
Sooth-Sayers would like us to believe them when they say things are
getting better. But, then again, they are paid well to try to make us
believe we have no problems.

Poverty amid such great known wealth
with soaring prices for goods and services resulting from monopoly
price-fixing coupled with inflation fueled by militarism and wars and
attacks on our public institutions like our public schools are
intended to weaken our public institutions along with the
under-funding they receive as the Military-Industrial Complex gobbles
up our Nation's wealth while children go hungry.

Racism and discrimination...

The problems are endless.

Are you fed up?

Are you thinking:There
must be a better way?

Do you feel like Wall Street has spun a
powerful web in which you are trapped with no possibility of escape
as these Wall Street parasites suck the life out of you with more
work and less pay?

What holds this deadly Wall Street spun
web together? The ingredients forming the powerful glue holding this
web together consist of racism, corruption and
anti-communism--- each on their own dangerous poisons causing
pernicious societal diseases; together they wreak havoc on our lives
and livelihoods.

Human society needs these Wall Street
parasites about as much as dogs need ticks and fleas.

As capitalism collapses around us---
and on top of us like an old weathered barn on a foreclosed abandoned
homestead--- the human misery is never-ending just like the very
costly dirty imperialist wars which now come with such tremendous
death and destruction one right on top of another even though most of
us want peace. And these Wall Street masters of war are now preparing
to upgrade the doomsday nuclear arsenal with, like with global
warming, no concern for the nuclear winter which will follow from
their use.

The corporate bribed and corrupted
politicians use the Minimum Wage as a lever of government to keep
wages down as a means to enforce poverty. By keeping wages down they
are doing a favor in return for the bribes they receive from
business--- large businesses and small businesses. Businesses, large
and small, reap huge super-profits from these low poverty wages
enforced by the Minimum Wage which when initially introduced was
intended to end poverty wages because we all know that when workers
are paid poverty wages working class families are going to be poor.

Let's be clear about this: Any wage
that doesn't enable a working class family to purchase the goods and
services required for a decent life is a poverty wage. Working people
have a right to expect a decent life and standard-of-living in return
for their labor which means the Minimum Wage must be linked to the
real cost-of-living.

These politicians always claim a small
“increase in the Minimum Wage is better than nothing” as they
substantially increase their own pay while ignoring, and doing
nothing about, rising prices in the grocery store, the robbery at the
gas pumps, the rip-off of steadily increasing electric and heating
bills, college tuition out of sight, increased rents and bus fares,
unaffordable health/home/automobile insurance costs and increased
rents and mortgage interest rates.

Any government which can control wages
through enforcing a poverty Minimum Wage could just as easily
roll-back and control prices at affordable levels. The corporate
bribed politicians choose not to roll-back and control prices of
goods and services claiming they are for allowing the “free market”
to determine all costs--- except labor costs which they enforce at
low pay. Very conveniently, these politicians always claim their
“hands are tied” when it comes to legislating for the common good
but spare no effort in providing a space for their corporate masters
to feed at the public trough like a bunch of pigs.

How come these politicians can keep
wages down but they can't roll-back and control the prices of any
goods or services and the basic necessities of life we have to
purchase in order to live? Can you live on a part-time job
paying $9.50 an hour?

Do you want to work 18 hours a day 60
hours a week at different part-time jobs trying to survive? Can the
human body endure this? Can working families survive this?

It is the epitome of hypocrisy--- not
to mention sickening--- for a billionaire Minnesota Governor like
Mark Dayton to tout $9.50 an hour as a wage that will lift working
class families out of poverty when his wealth has been derived almost
exclusively from his family paying workers poverty wages.

Politicians like Obama and Dayton talk
about, “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs,” yet unemployment continues with no end
in sight. Where are the jobs these politicians talk about?

The climate crisis continues; putting
us on a collision course with Mother Nature. Again, like with wages,
these politicians legislate ever bigger carbon footprints not to
mention that the industry with the largest carbon footprint in the
entire world is the U.S Military-Industrial Complex.

We working people and the environment
suffer as Wall Street profits. It just isn't right.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out
something is wrong. It doesn't have to be this way.

Minnesota's two socialist governors,
Floyd B. Olson and Elmer A. Benson, sought to bring people together
to pull for reforms as they simultaneously sought to build the
socialist Cooperative Commonwealth here in Minnesota--- this was a
good idea back then in the 1930's... and its an even better idea now.

In one of his last interviews before he
died, Elmer Benson said his worst political mistake was to support
the merger of the socialist Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party with the
corrupt, anti-labor and racist Democratic Party thinking the influx
of socialist thinking from the Farmer-Labor wing would create a
Democratic Party that would become a huge people's party. Things
didn't turn out this way and working class socialist thinking was
driven out of the Democratic Party.

Benson advocated re-establishing a
working class based progressive socialist party for peace, social and
economic justice and he advocated re-establishing the “People's
Lobby” which he founded to overcome the interests of big-businesses
in Minnesota politics.

As Benson noted: Working people have
been abandoned by the Democratic Party, millionaire labor “leaders”
and these foundation-funded outfits who hide their Wall Street
agendas behind cleverly conceived schemes concocted to hoodwink us
into thinking capitalism is alright, it just needs to be tweaked with
reforms. As Benson said, “This is pure bullshit; the capitalist
system is the source of our problems.”

Well, guess what?

These self-serving, selfish and corrupt
politicians bribed by Wall Street won't even provide us with the kind
of real reform that would raise the Minimum Wage to a real living
wage in line with the actual cost-of-living factors even though the
wealth they have accumulated through exploiting the rest of us while
raping Mother Nature and placing us in this dire predicament of
climate change is just plain obscene.

How the heck can we expect these
over-paid politicians and millionaire union “leaders” who have no
concept of the “Cost-of-Living Crisis” working class
families are experiencing to address this problem when they are in
denial?

Then there are the well-heeled, muddle-headed,
upper-middle class “intellectuals” sitting in the ivory towers of
the universities where they are shielded from the problems of
everyday living working class families are experiencing who are
pontificating about “economic miracles” and failing to
acknowledge our problems. They speak for this or that “think tank”
serving as media “pundits” to explain everything to us. All they
do is create more confusion instead of providing insight and clarity.
Their intent is to undermine common sense and clear thinking with
their grossly distorted “insight.”

We live in the richest country in the
world where labor has created all the wealth which Wall Street
hordes.

Working people who horde a few canned
goods are diagnosed as being mentally ill; but greedy Wall Street
“investors” can horde the entire wealth of the Nation and they
are running the show and get glamourized.

Much of the wealth labor has created is
being squandered on war after war; the rest is controlled by a
handful of Wall Street monopolists who refuse to relinquish their
hold on this wealth so it could be used for the common good. This
wealth is required to finance real reforms needed to improve our
lives, our quality of life and our standard-of-living.

Instead of investing in reforms which
would create jobs, Wall Street invests this money in low-wage areas
of the world which destroys our jobs and angers those it exploits and
oppresses which results in more wars.

We witnessed how this works.

The St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly
Plant once employing over two-thousand workers seldom viewed as human
beings now lays in rubble; a new Ranger assembly plant was built in
Thailand with the tax-payer subsidies Ford Motor Company received
from the local, state and federal governments. The Trans-Pacific
Partnership will enable Ford to import these Ranger pick-up trucks
back into the United States. Quite the racket. Again, Wall Street
profits; workers suffer.

And many of the workers who received
large “buyouts” have now been cheated out of their money by
investment firms, “counselors” and “advisers.”

When workers in Thailand kick about the
poverty wages paid by Ford the U.S. Marines will be sent in.

There is never enough money for needed
reforms; the wealth Wall Street doesn't horde goes for wars
protecting Wall Street's interests, investments and profits. For Wall
Street, nothing is more profitable than wars.

We need to challenge Wall Street for
political and economic power if we are ever going to straighten out
this mess we are in. As Floyd Olson and Elmer Benson noted: Wall
Street is our common enemy.

Anyone who thinks Wall Street and its
politicians can be appealed to for justice is living in La-La Land.

Justice, whether for jobs at living
wages or real health care reform, requires a united struggle.

We need to fight to defend our
livelihoods and our rights.

The working class needs genuine
grassroots and rank-and-file think tanks and action centers in every
neighborhood and every place of employment geared to solving our
problems through reforms and socialist revolution...

What can't be won at the bargaining
table we should be looking to win through legislation.

What
can't be won either way can be won through socialist revolution.

Let's not kid ourselves... it takes a
fight to win anything from these greedy Wall Street bastards.

We need a new kind of politics based on
the thinking of the old socialist Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party---

Let's talk about the politics and
economics of livelihood for a change.

Working class families have to scrape
and scrounge just to get by; it shouldn't be this way. This has a
name: Cost-of-Living Crisis. You won't find any Democrats or
Republicans talking about this crisis.

Politicians pretend the causes of
poverty are complex. Why is it so difficult to figure out that
workers without jobs are going to be poor?

Why is it so difficult to figure out
that workers paid poverty wages are going to be poor?

Why is it so difficult to figure out
that workers employed in part-time jobs paying poverty wages are
going to be poor?

There is a better way.

We don't have to live this way.

We don't have to take this crap from
Wall Street and their crooked and corrupt politicians.

Like Floyd Olson and Elmer Benson said,
“The mines, mills, factories, banking, the forestry and energy
industries should be brought under public ownership.” This was the
intent of establishing the socialist Cooperative Commonwealth here in
Minnesota. A good idea then; a better idea now.

Many of the solutions are very simple;
just plain old common sense:

- Pay people real living wages. Raise
the Minimum Wage to a real living wage tied to all cost-of-living
factors.

- Make the president and Congress
responsible for attaining and maintaining full employment--- this
isn't too much to expect from politicians who talk about “jobs,
jobs, jobs.”

- Provide everyone with a Basic Income
Guarantee.

- Put an end to this undemocratic
“At-Will Employment” so workers have a voice at work and in the
communities where they live without the fear of employer retaliation.

- Put an end to militarism and these
dirty wars; use the wealth of our Nation created by labor to create a
national public health care system and a national public child care
system which would create millions of new jobs at real living wages
providing people with the services they need and to which they are
entitled. We can continue down the dangerous barbaric path of war
after war or we can join with people all over the world seeking to
beat swords into plowshares.

Instead of 800 U.S. Military bases
spread out across the globe protecting Wall Street's investments,
assets and profits we need community and neighborhood health care
centers and child care centers in every community and neighborhood.

This isn't radical to think like this.
These universal social programs would be publicly funded, publicly
administered with the services publicly delivered--- just like public
education.

Join with us.

We need a new kind of politics.

We need some kind of “New Broom”
electoral coalition to sweep Washington clean from corruption and
warmongering.

We need this electoral coalition to be:

Anti-monopoly.

Anti-imperialist

With the stated goal of taking
political and economic power away from Wall Street.

Add your voice in support of common
sense solutions to our problems.

Progressives in Canada are leading the
way by example and we should study and learn from what they are
doing:

This
text is an abridged version of a declaration launched recently in
Toronto. To read it in full and to become a signatory
visit leapmanifesto.org

We
could live in a country powered entirely by renewable energy, woven
together by accessible public transit, in which the opportunities of
this transition are designed to eliminate racial and gender
inequality. Caring for one another and caring for the planet could be
the economy’s fastest growing sectors. Many more people could have
higher-wage jobs with fewer work hours, leaving us ample time to
enjoy our loved ones and flourish in our communities.

Canada
is not this place today – but it can be.

The
time for this great transition is short. Climate scientists have told
us this is the decade to take decisive action to prevent catastrophic
global warming. That means small steps will no longer suffice.

So
we need to leap.

This
leap must begin by respecting the inherent rights and title of the
original caretakers of this land. Indigenous communities have been at
the forefront of protecting rivers, coasts, forests and lands from
out-of-control industrial activity. We can bolster this role by fully
implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples.

Moved
by the treaties that form the legal basis of this country and bind us
to share the land “for as long as the sun shines, the grass grows
and the rivers flow,” we want energy sources that will last for
time immemorial and never run out or poison the land. Technological
breakthroughs have brought this dream within reach. The latest
research shows it is feasible to get 100 per cent of our electricity
from renewable resources within two decades. We demand that this
shift begin now.

There
is no longer an excuse for building new infrastructure projects that
lock us into increased extraction decades into the future. That
applies equally to oil and gas pipelines; fracking in New Brunswick,
Quebec and British Columbia; increased tanker traffic off our coasts;
and to Canadian-owned mining projects the world over.

The
time has come for energy democracy: We believe not just in changes to
our energy sources, but that wherever possible communities should
collectively control these new energy systems. We can create
innovative ownership structures: democratically run, paying living
wages and keeping much-needed revenue in communities. And indigenous
peoples should be first to receive public support for their own clean
energy projects. So should communities currently dealing with heavy
health impacts of polluting industrial activity.

Power
generated this way will not merely light our homes but also
redistribute wealth, deepen our democracy, strengthen our economy and
start to heal the wounds that date back to this country’s founding.

A
leap to a non-polluting economy can create countless other multiple
“wins.” We want training and resources for workers in
carbon-intensive jobs, ensuring they are fully able to participate in
the clean-energy economy. High-speed rail powered by renewables and
affordable public transit can unite every community in this country –
in place of more cars, pipelines and exploding trains that endanger
and divide us.

Since
this leap is beginning late, we need to invest in our decaying public
infrastructure so it can withstand increasingly frequent extreme
weather events.

Moving
to a far more localized and ecologically based agricultural system
would reduce reliance on fossil fuels, capture carbon in the soil and
absorb sudden shocks in the global supply – as well as produce
healthier and more affordable food for everyone.

We
call for an end to all trade deals that interfere with our attempts
to rebuild local economies, regulate corporations and stop damaging
extractive projects. Rebalancing the scales of justice, we should
ensure immigration status and full protection for all workers.

Shifting
to an economy in balance with the Earth’s limits also means
expanding the economic sectors that are already low-carbon:
caregiving, teaching, social work, the arts and public-interest
media. Following on Quebec’s lead, a national child-care program is
long past due. All this work, much of it performed by women, is the
glue that builds humane, resilient communities – and we will need
our communities to be as strong as possible in the face of the rocky
future we have already locked in.

We
declare that “austerity” – which has systematically attacked
low-carbon sectors such as education and health care, while starving
public transit and forcing reckless energy privatizations – is a
fossilized form of thinking that has become a threat to life on
Earth. The money we need to pay for this great transformation is
available – we just need the right policies to release it. Such as
an end to fossil-fuel subsidies. Financial transaction taxes.
Increased resource royalties. Higher income taxes on corporations and
wealthy people. A progressive carbon tax. Cuts to military spending.
All of these are based on a simple “polluter pays” principle and
hold enormous promise.

One
thing is clear: Public scarcity in times of unprecedented private
wealth is a manufactured crisis, designed to extinguish our dreams
before they have a chance to be born.

Those
dreams go well beyond this manifesto. We call for town hall meetings
across the country where residents can gather to democratically
define what a genuine leap to the next economy means in their
communities.

Inevitably,
this bottom-up revival will lead to a renewal of democracy at every
level of government, working swiftly toward a system in which every
vote counts and corporate money is removed from political campaigns.

This
is a great deal to take on all at once, but such are the times in
which we live.

The
drop in oil prices has temporarily relieved the pressure to dig up
fossil fuels as rapidly as high-risk technologies will allow. This
pause in frenetic expansion should not be viewed as a crisis, but as
a gift. It has given us a rare moment to look at what we have become
– and decide to change.

And
so we call on all those seeking political office to seize this
opportunity. This is our sacred duty to those this country harmed in
the past, to those suffering needlessly in the present and to all who
have a right to a bright and safe future.

Now
is the time for boldness.

Now
is the time to leap.

Let us band together in
a “New Broom” coalition as Minnesotans for a Better Way

If you are fed up; stand up in
seeking real solutions to our problems... there is a better way; we
all know it.

What we need are citizen
activists popping up like dandelions after a warm spring rain.

We need to be thinking in terms
of people and Mother Nature before Wall Street profits.

The two-party system is part of
Wall Street's web; part of the web spun to keep us trapped--- the
two-party trap. Both the Democrats and Republicans serve Wall
Street's greedy profit-driven interests.

We would like to suggest the
convening of a state-wide conference of Minnesotans for a Better
Way...

We are your fellow workers,
friends and neighbors...

We are Minnesotans for a Better
Way

Gather a few friends around your kitchen table... invite a speaker...
get involved as a citizen activist.

Canadian workers have their own political party; the socialist New
Democratic Party which is pretty much like our old socialist
Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party which was successfully led by Minnesota
governors Floyd B. Olson and Elmer A. Benson. Even though Canadians
working through their New Democratic Party are on the verge of taking
national political power away from Bay Street, their counterpart to
Wall Street, we aren't hearing much about this from our so-called
“free” media.

For years, the New Democratic Party has been the party in power in
Manitoba, our neighbor to the north and working class families are
the better off for it.

Like each little individual raindrop we don't amount to much trying
to stand up alone to the evil powers that be; but, together, united,
we are like Old Man River, the Mighty Mississippi--- we can't be
stopped... once flowing we will just keep rolling along.

Our first project will be to work up a plan to develop support for a
comprehensive legislative initiative for peace, jobs and workers'
rights:

“A 21st Century Full Employment
Act for Peace and Prosperity.”

A couple closing comments and
observations:

Barack Obama's presidency has caused a great deal of confusion with
some people still holding out hope that he will prevail in doing
good. Had Obama had any decency about him he would have ended these
wars, halted the executions by drones and put an immediate stop to
home foreclosures and evictions.

And here in Minnesota, this billionaire governor who promised a
Minimum Wage that would be a real living wage while declaring no one
who works for a living should have to live in poverty would have made
good on his campaign promise--- no one can live on $9.50 an hour; it
is one more poverty wage... and it won't go into effect until 2016
when any “gain” will have been more than eaten up by price
increases and inflation.

Most people have already noted that each succeeding president and the
rest of the politicians are worse than the previous. This is because
their mandate which comes from Wall Street, instead of “we the
people,” places them in positions of trying to save a capitalist
system in a serious state of decay which has reached its highest and
most moribund stage of imperialism in which huge Wall Street
monopolies order the politicians to provide the “technicians,”
government bureaucrats, who are placed in positions of authority to
run the government as they see fit, irrespective of any human misery
they cause--- “collateral damage;” they are trying to save
capitalism from complete collapse. They are trying to save their
rotten system at our expense.

One of the major problems we are experiencing is too many people have
bought into the idea that there is no class struggle any longer which
has led people to conclude the Democratic Party and the Democrats and
their “partners,” the foundation funded outfits and millionaire
labor “leaders” who buy into this idea that other countries are
our enemies instead of business, multinational corporations and the
Wall Street backed political parties.

It is true there are some working class activists, progressives and
honest liberals still active in the Democratic Party we must not beak
our connections off with but these people are becoming fewer and
further between as so many people in this country now recognize the
two-party system is a trap established by Wall Street.

This problem was recently brought into full view at a rally on
Minnesota's Iron Range where Minnesota's billionaire Democratic
Governor was the featured speaker “defining” the problems
confronting the taconite industry and members of the United
Steelworkers in particular.

Here is what Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton said in his widely
publicized speech which was the opening for his re-election
campaign...

““The
story of the Iron Range is one of standing strong against
exploitation and oppression, and too often of a government that will
not stand with them,” Dayton said to a cheering crowd of 1,500 iron
miners. “Today’s
enemies are not the companies, but the countries
that dump their steel in the U.S. market, depress the prices and take
away your jobs.”

Regional
leaders of the United Steelworkers and leaders of the Democratic
Party helped Dayton write this speech and it has been confirmed that
USW President Leo Girard had his hand in this speech.

Does any thinking person really believe that foreign countries should
be viewed as our enemies for “dumping steel” in this country when
all these “foreign” companies are more often than not owned in
whole or in part by Wall Street investors and the parasites on
Canada's Bay Street along with those parasitic vultures hiding behind
the monikers as investors and even “philanthropists?” Companies
like U.S. Steel and Cleveland Cliffs are no friends of workers.

In fact, Dayton and his family have huge financial holdings in these
“foreign” steel companies and his major funding has come from
none other than the Rockefeller family which has huge holdings in
foreign mining and steel manufacturing all over the world who are
directly profiting from this “dumping” and it is the U.S.
construction companies who are happy to be able to purchase this
“foreign” steel from which they make super-profits--- often
selling this steel to our government at sharply inflated rates for
bridge work, sewer projects, etc.

And consider this:

If these countries are engaged in “criminal” activity as the USW
and these Democrats are claiming, how should we be characterizing the
brutal exploitation of workers being used to rape Mother Nature in
the process of mining, milling and manufacturing this steel in the
first place--- are we not talking about what is the very nature of
U.S. Imperialism--- insatiable greed?

Don't we need an anti-imperialist movement in solidarity with the
workers and people's of these other countries whom Minnesota's
Governor, the Democratic Party hacks and millionaire labor “leaders”
want us to view as our enemies as they let the Daytons and
Rockefellers--- Wall Street and Bay Street--- off the hook?

Is there any truth to Dayton's words that these companies like U.S.
Steel and Cliff's Natural Resources (Cleveland Cliff) no longer are
oppressing and exploiting workers on the Iron Range? How soon we
forget that these companies were prepared to bring in an army of
scabs just a few short years ago to work the mines and process the
taconite had the USW gone on strike for what workers were
legitimately entitled to rather than having had concessions shoved
down their throats by these same Democrats and millionaire labor
“leaders” working hand-in-hand with these Wall Street companies.

And never mentioned by Dayton or these millionaire labor “leaders”
is the fact that these mining companies on Minnesota's Iron Range
have swindled thousands of workers in the mining industry out of
their pensions. It is not China, Brazil or any other country which
has swindled these miners out of their pensions it is the very
companies on the Iron Range who Dayton now makes the outrageous claim
these companies no longer exploit or oppress.

One can not help but wonder what kind of speech Minnesota's socialist
governors, Floyd Olson and Elmer Benson, would have delivered at such
a rally on Minnesota's Iron Range from which Communist U.S.
Congressman John Bernard from Eveleth, Minnesota and the Iron Range
organizer for the socialist Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party.

Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton's speech, in spite of his claim to
being a big “liberal,” was just one more neo-liberal imperialist
speech from one more Wall Street profiteer.

Do we simply ignore all of this because to talk about these facts
will give the Republicans a lift up as the Democratic Party hacks
claim?

Working people need to analyze what is going on in this country and
around the world from a working class anti-imperialist perspective
lest the sons and daughters of the working class continue to serve as
fodder in these dirty imperialist wars and our Nation's wealth
continues to be squandered on militarism and war after war.

It is also noteworthy to mention that over 40% of all the ore mined
and processed and manufactured into steel and then fabricated has
gone into militarism and wars--- this has left one hell of a carbon
footprint contributing to global warming.

Nor did Governor Dayton talk about the need to reduce the work week
with forty hours pay, shorten retirement to 55 and extend vacations
in this taconite industry on Minnesota's Iron Range so that more jobs
could be created in this very economically depressed region now being
called “Appalachia North.”

Nor was the need to reorder the priorities of this country away from
war and military spending to meet human needs broached in Governor
Dayton's speech. Why not? This would create thousands of good paying
decent jobs on the Iron Range.

And how is it that Governor
Dayton didn't mention the need to organize the big-box industries on
the Iron Range--- Wal-mart, Menard's, Target and the likes of Holiday
Convenience Stations, McDonald's, Pizza Hut and Burger King? Are not
these companies employing thousands of Iron Rangers at part-time jobs
paying poverty wages “exploiting” and “oppressing” workers on
the Iron Range without any assist from “foreign enemies?”

And
why no mention of Minnesota remaining an “At-Will Employment”
State in spite of Governor Dayton presiding in his first term over a
Democratic super-majority state government?

Dayton did not so much as mention his role in putting over 40,000
Minnesotans to work in loud, noisy, smoke-filled casinos at poverty
wages in places of employment where workers have no voice and no
rights--- workers without rights at work have no rights in the
communities where they live, either. Apparently this Democratic
governor loathes speaking about U.S. democracy and the state of
democracy here in Minnesota where employers are allowed to lock out
workers and bring in scabs as American Crystal Sugar did for over a
year... or are we supposed to have forgotten about this?

Again, no one is suggesting we sever ties with working class
activists, progressives and real liberals still active in the
Democratic Party but remaining silent in the face of this kind of
Wall Street imperialist chauvinism and jingoism of blaming other
countries for the problems working people here are experiencing when
these Wall Street corporations are our common enemy because they
exploit and oppress here and abroad is definitely not acceptable.

Governor Dayton's speech on the Iron Range is a far cry from the
speeches workers used to hear at Mesaba Cooperative Park where fiery
anti-imperialist speeches advocating for building Minnesota's
socialist Cooperative Commonwealth were once delivered.

We can do better.

We must do better.

I think of these things often as I visit the graves of my Grandpa and
Grandma and the other working class activists buried in that little
cemetery in Gilbert, Minnesota who understood that these Wall Street
mining companies are our enemies--- our forever enemies.

I was asked a question; this was my answer.

At a recent forum in Thief River Falls, Minnesota where I was on a panel discussing Minnesota's financial woes, I was asked what I would do if I was governor.

This is a fair question.

This was my answer:

Please keep in mind as I proceed with my thoughts that there is a "fare" and a "fair." One is spelled "f-a-r-e" and means something completely different from "fair" spelled "f-a-i-r."

If I were elected governor of Minnesota the very first reforms I would implement to solve the state's budget problems would be:

1. A hefty tax on the rich like Mark Dayton promised as he campaigned for election but reneged on once elected.

2. Substantially increase the taconite tax; the mining companies are robbing us blind leaving us with poverty and pits filled with pollution while they abscond with the profits. This has to end.

3. Place a really hefty tax on the forestry industry in the form of stumpage fees; cut down any tree and you pay what the tree is really worth.

4. I would place toll booths at the entrances to each and every casino in Minnesota charging the exact same fee Minnesotans are charged to enter our State Parks. Anyone who can afford to gamble can afford such a fee. I would also initiate a "gambling license" on all gamblers. Just like a fishing license

Like most of you, I am fed up with this "circus in the Cities." Democrats and Republicans don't know the difference between the words "f-a-r-e" and "f-a-i-r;" we should give them all a dictionary not our votes.

I think most Minnesotans would agree with these four solutions. So, what kind of democracy do we have where politicians won't do what people want and expect?

It's just like the priorities at the national level... like they say in the Navy--- it's a SNAFU. If you don't know what a S-N-A-F-U stands for, look it up in the Urban Dictionary on your computer when you get home.

If the United States government would stop spending our tax dollars on this insane militarism and all these dirty imperialist wars we would have the money to put people to work solving the problems of the people.

I recently read this little book by former Democratic Vice-president under FDR, Henry Wallace, "Sixty Million Jobs." I would encourage everyone to read this book because it was in 1945 when this book was published to support the Full Employment Act of 1945 when Democrats and Republicans--- at Wall Street's insistence--- decided not to take Henry Wallace's advice provided in this book that our country began going way off track.

Henry Wallace pointed out that Peace will put everyone to work which will solve just about every major problem we have in this country.

Can the Penokees be saved by people attacking workers' rights?

Question...

Who gave their consent to make this a "two-party system" where only one class gets representation?

How capitalism works...

How capitalism works explained from a worker's perspective...

Abba Ramos, a veteran organizer in the International Longshore and Warehouse Union:

"If they can get a trained monkey to unload that boxcar tomorrow morning, rest assured, they'll have them over there and they'll have some bananas for lunch, and you'll be out on the street looking for work. Simple as that. You've got to remember, they follow only one rule of economic law, and that's that maximum production-minimum cost yields the greatest amount of profit. They don't deviate from that."

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Taking it to the streets... Obama has to go.

A program for real change...

* Peace--- end the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya and shutdown the 800 U.S. military bases on foreign soil.

* A National Public Health Care System - ten million new jobs.

* A National Public Child Care System - three to five million new jobs.

* WPA - three million new jobs.

* CCC - two million new jobs.

* Tax the hell out of the rich and cut the military budget by ending the wars to pay for it all which will create full employment.

* Enforce Affirmative Action; end discrimination.

* Raise the minimum wage to a real living wage

* What tax-payers subsidize in the way of businesses, tax-payers should own and reap the profits from.

* Moratorium on home foreclosures and evictions.

* Defend democracy by defending workers' rights including the right to collective bargaining for improving the lives and livelihoods of working people.

* Roll-back and freeze the price of food, electricity, gas and heating fuels; not wages, benefits or pensions.

* Wall Street is our enemy.

Let's talk about the politics and economics of livelihood for a real change.

Search This Blog

Follow and support the important working class' victory at the polls in Canada

Canadian workers and their New Democratic Party are blazing the path of independence from the big-business controlled political parties. Manitoba will be having elections in the fall. Workers here in the United States should be paying attention to Canadian politics as there is a lot to learn. Ask your union to link its websites to the Canadian Labour Congress, New Democratic Party and Manitoba NDP.

Also, I would encourage you to paste this into your own personal blogs, web sites and FaceBook and other social netwoking sites.

Contact info...

About Me

I live in northern Minnesota with my dog Fred, a Chocolate Lab. I have been involved in the peace, labor, civil rights, and environmental movements for over 30 years, and I am a socialist. I would encourage everyone to get involved in promoting the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which came into existence on December 10, 1948; we should strive to use the yearly anniversary of this document to popularize it. We need to struggle to create a more progressive, socially just society where all working people receive real living wages and have a voice at work, and in their communities. I am working with casino workers across Minnesota who are trying to organize a union. I am also working with people in northern Minnesota struggling to save the Big Bog, our primary freshwater aquifer--- this bog is being mined for peat. In my spare time during the spring and fall you can find me fly fishing on the Dark River, a pristine designated trout stream;in the winter ice fishing on Lake-of-the-Woods.
I look forward to hearing from you. Nothing human is alien to me.

Important Notice...

Due to recent budget cuts and the cost of electricity, gas and oil, as well as current market conditions and the continued decline of the economy, The Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off.

Building a new era of justice and peace

The United States has 800 military bases on foreign soil...What we need--- instead--- is 800 public health care centers spread out across the United States where people can universally access, for free, all their health care needs from pre-natal care, to general health care to eye, dental and mental care right through to burial.

Instead of moving in this progressive direction, President Barack Obama and the United States Congress are moving in a most reactionary direction towards establishing military bases in outer space as they seek to insure the profits of both the merchants of death and destruction and the profit-driven health care industries... talk about skewed priorities and your wacky ideas which will execerbate the problems surrounding the failing capitalist economy, and ideas devoid of common sense.

In addition to these 800 U.S. military bases on foreign soil, Barack Obama and the United States Congress continue funding--- with our tax-dollars--- the Israeli killing machine to the tune of tens of billions of dollars. Where is the "change?"

This is the change Americans want, and the change we need:

A network of 800 public health care centers spread out across the United States would create over four-million good-paying, decent jobs--- talk about your "economic stimulus" package!

We would be redistributing the wealth as we are planting the seeds of socialism while helping to eradicate poverty by keeping people healthy and getting them well when sick.

Think about this kind of solution in relation to what Barack Obama, the U.S. Congress and the Wall Street bankers and coupon clippers are offering the American people, and the peoples of the world... just what is the reason for bailing out the banks and AIG and maintaining more than 800 expensive U.S. military bases of foreign soil?

The Mt. Carmel Clinic in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada offers us a glimpse at what militarization and wars continue to rob us of.

The problems created by Wall Street will not be solved as long as the military-financial-industrial complex is allowed to squander human and natural resources on militarism and wars... we might just as well be dumping these resources out into the ocean... at least no one would die in wars.

These merchants of death and destruction must be stopped if humanity is to survive in a livable world.

The time has come to talk about working class Marxist politics and the economics of livelihood... capitalism has failed humanity miserably and left us a real mess to clean up.

Capitalism is on the skids to oblivion and unless we take a "left turn" we will continue down this road to perdition.

Something for working people to think about and discuss around the dinner table... the capitalist sooth-Sayers certainly are not going to broach such solutions to the problems of working people as they hide behind the skirt of Rosy Scenario as this global capitalist economic depression intensifies while wars rage on.

The times and conditions call for "building a new era of justice and peace;" this is one step in that direction; this is the change the American people voted for.

Contact Barack Obama, let him know what is on your mind...

A gift returned...

Thank you for the 3 bottles of wine that you sent me as season’s greetings. I wish to you, your family and everybody in the Embassy a happy new year. Good health and progress to you all.

Unhappily, I noticed that the wine you have sent me has been produced in the Golan Heights. I have been taught since I was very young not to steal and not to accept products of theft. So I cannot possibly accept this gift and I must return it back to you.

As you know, your country occupies illegally the Golan Heights which belongs to Syria, according to the International Law and numerous decisions of the International Community.

I take the opportunity to express my hope that Israel will find security within its internationally recognized borders and the terrorist activities against Israel territory by Hamas or anybody else will be contained and made impossible, but I also hope that your government will cease practicing the policy of collective punishment which was applied on a mass scale by Hitler and his armies.

Actions such as those of these days of the Israel military in Gaza remind the Greek people of holocausts such as in Kalavrita or Doxato or Distomo and certainly in the ghetto of Warsaw.

With these thoughts allow me to express to you my best wishes for you, the Israeli people and all the people of our region of the world.

Athens, 30/12/2008

Theodoros Pangalos, Member of Parliament (Greece)

Auto workers fight for union recognition 1930's

This demonstration was organized by the Trade Union Unity League under the leadership of Phil Raymond who was an organizer of the auto workers

Everybody knows...

Historic victory

Communist Elected President of Cyprus

AKEL anti-fascist, anti-imperialist elected

Congratulations to AKEL and Dimitris Christofias.... GC of AKEL and President of the House of Representatives comrade Dimitris Christofias and GC of KKE (Communist Party Of Greece) comrade Aleca Papariga at the rally against the war in Iraq a few hundred meters towards the USA Embassy in Nicosia

Madam Labor Secretary

International Women’s Day

Ann Holdreith

Michigan poet--- The poetry of Ann Holdreith merges the mystical with the everyday. A chapter of her work is included in "Beyond the Lines", an anthology of Michigan authors published by Plainview Press. Her publishing credits also include: Wayne State University, Gravity Presses, Dixie Phoenix, Poetry Motel, Free Fall, Snakeskin, Gravity Webzine, Stirring (Best Love Poems), Aether, Friction Magazine and a Pushcart Prize nomination. Ann has taught for the Detroit Writer's Voice and is a Magna Cum Laude graduate in Fine Art and Literature from the University of Detroit. She has featured at the Michigan Opera Theatre, The Detroit Festival for the Arts and Spring Fed Arts of Detroit. Her riveting performance style synthesizes her background as an actress, vocalist, dancer and performance artist. Ann has been teaching her Fire Seed workshop, designed to free the authentic self, since 1987. Her work is dedicated to the full expression and elevation of the human spirit.

Autumn Sky

By: Ann Holdreith

On the ride home from Toledo, from a worn out school resurrected for good honest men, for men with kids and grandkids, guys who eat sugar doughnuts and wink while they hammer-out fenders and hurl the carcasses of metal beasts, against autumn’s haunted sky,I wonder if they remember the grip of thighs around engine-lessmuscle and sweat, ragged dirty hair assaulting the wind, buttocks and back pounding with hooves that know exactly where they belong on this earth.

On the way from Toledo, a pulsing cloud of blackbirds hurls its wings against the dying blue;dark umbrellas opening to summer’s last ride.

Carlton, Minnesota

Along the North Shore of Lake Superior

"Peace Bridge" demonstration

St. Paul/Minneapolis, Minnesota

Democratic majority in the Michigan House abandons casino workers...

Wednesday, August 8, 2007--- Lansing, Michigan. By a shameful vote of 63 to 41... not a single Michigan Legislator--- with the exception of one lone Republican--- would take a stand in defense of the rights of casino workers to be employed in a workplace free of second-hand smoke. Not one single Michigan Legislator would take a stand for casino workers being paid real living wages protected by state and federal labor laws along with the right to organize for collective bargaining. House Democratic Floor Leader Steve Tobacman and Democratic Representative Barbara Farrah did this dirty work for the Fertitta Family and the Kansas City mob which will "skim" the profits from the Gun Lake Casino like they have done in all the other casinos managed by the Fertitta Family. The United Auto Workers union leadership, fearing estrangement and being shunned by the Democratic Party, dropped its feeble opposition to this legislation giving a hint as to how they intend to abandon autoworkers in the present contract negotiations with the "Big Three."

Super Profits and Crises; Modern U.S. Capitalism by Victor Perlo

This is a must read book for anyone wanting to fully understand the present economic crisis.

Victor Perlo was a noted researcher and economist in the Franklin D. Roosevelt and Truman Administrations.

Perlo has made economics easy to understand for everyone.

Did anyone notice former President Jimmy Carter did not address the Democratic National Convention?

Former President Jimmy Carter speaks about his controversial book 'Palestine Peace Not Apartheid' at Jewish-founded Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts January 23, 2007. [Reuters]

Owl on cold winter day

near Jacobson, Minnesota

Minnesotans give United States Senator Norm Coleman a piece of their mind about the Iraq War...

The protest was organized by the Twin Cities Peace Campaign--Focus on Iraq and WAMM (Women Against Military Madness)

As these Minnesotans protested outside Coleman's office...

Others went inside to write their statements calling for an end to this dirty war in Iraq

These protests at Coleman's local office will continue as long as he continues to support the war

Among the concerned citizens opposed to the war in Iraq were members of many church groups, the Iraq Peace Action Coalition, Veterans for Peace, the Minneapolis Club of the Communist Party USA and members of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party, Military Families Speak Out... the diversity of the demonstrators reflected a broad cross-section of the Minnesota public.

Destroying a people, their homeland, their right to survive...

Tours of Northern Minnesota...

I offer guided tours of Northern Minnesota that include visits to historic Mesaba Co-op Park, historic buildings and cemetaries on the Iron Range, the Wellstone Memorial, "Mine View," United States Steel's Minntac operation, the Big Bog, Red Lake.
A great opportunity for photographers.
Individual, family, small or large groups. Meals and overnight accomodations can be arranged.
Let's really explore Northern Minnesota.

Working class songs

Grohmann Museum

It's time to start thinking outside the capitalist box...

We need to get off the beaten path and begin to explore the cooperative socialist alternative to capitalism. The Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party together with the "Red" Finns on the Iron Range created a solid progressive foundation; we can continue to build on the legacy they left to us as we network and grow our movement for peace and social justice by establishing working class clubs for education and action... now is the time to begin discussing how we are going to put an end to capitalism as we struggle to end this dirty war for oil in Iraq and work towards socialized health care by taking the first step with single-payer, universal health care... these discussions should take place frequently around the kitchen table with family, friends, and fellow workers.

Alan Maki and Fred

Off the beaten path

Writing a Letter the Editor

Write A Letter To The Editor--- a very effective way to influence public opinion.

By: Alan L. Maki

Letters to the Editorare an effective way of speaking to a large group of people, and often getting the attention of elected officials; but, most important is that elected public officials understand that through a Letter to the Editor you are speaking directly to your friends, neighbors and fellow workers in the proverbial public square and these politicians will understand that their own positions are being publicly challenged and people are beginning to “think outside the box” which often leads to movement building.

First, you should pick an issue that you feel strongly about and you are familiar with; citing your own personal experiences with unemployment and poverty or with war makes for a very strong Letter to the Editor.

One important thing to remember is that newspapers like to publish letters that have a local tone; so your letter should address how the issue is pertinent to people in your area.

Also, it is best to always refer to an article that was published in the newspaper you are submitting your letter to. State that you are opposing or supporting the views in the article or editorial. Give the date and page of publication you are referencing.

If you need the address for your local paper, check out this site which has links to newspapersall over Minnesota: http://www.mnnews.com/

Remember to show your published Letter to the Editor to everyone you know; encourage them to write, too.

If you and a couple friends get Letters published you can photo-copy them and use it as a leaflet.

One effective way to use Letters to the Editor to build movements is to write a Letter and then get friends to follow up with Letters of their own on different aspects of the issue.

Remember to stick to the newspaper's guidelines as to limitation on words, etc. that the newspaper establishes.

*If your Letter doesn't get published, call the Editor and ask for the reason your letter wasn't published. Often the Editor will suggest “corrections” that you can make and then you can resubmit the Letter for publication consideration. Also, don't waste a Letter to the Editor; submit it to another paper if one doesn't publish it.

There are some important working class issues many Editors of corporate newspapers will not publish unless pressured to do so. If this happens then take the opportunity to publish your Letter as a leaflet with a big, bold headline like this:The Duluth News-Tribune refused to publish this--- why? What is happening to democracy in our community?

If you are working on an issue or problem, gather together a few people and have a Letter to the Editor writing party at your home, in a union hall, community center, library, church or park. Libraries are good places to have such a party because you have many resources available.

Each of us is like one little snowflake; we don't amount to much... but watch out for a Minnesota blizzard!

Banner used to promote my blog.

One of a few new banners for promoting my blog... click to enlarge; watch for my displays at gatherings, demonstrations, forums--- when you see my displays stop to chat.

How capitalism works...

How capitalism works explained from a worker's perspective...

Abba Ramos, a veteran organizer in the International Longshore and Warehouse Union:

"If they can get a trained monkey to unload that boxcar tomorrow morning, rest assured, they'll have them over there and they'll have some bananas for lunch, and you'll be out on the street looking for work. Simple as that. You've got to remember, they follow only one rule of economic law, and that's that maximum production-minimum cost yields the greatest amount of profit. They don't deviate from that."

In the streets for peace, social and economic justice

St. Paul, Minnesota; March 19, 2011

Money should go to health care and jobs, not wars

Duluth News Tribune

Barack Obama has turned out to be just one more Wall Street flim-flam man and con artist posing as a president while selling health insurance on the side. Here we are spending billions on wars with unemployment soaring as the economy collapses. With Obama’s health-care reform, the for-profit health-care system is in an even bigger mess.

Listening to Democrats making excuses for Obama has been sickening. People voted for peace and got more war. People voted for health-care reform and got a health insurance industry bailout and profit maximization act. The Democrats scream, “Jobs, jobs, jobs!” and we get more unemployment and poverty-wage jobs.

Common sense tells us to end these dirty wars and use the money to pay for a world-class, socialized, health-care system, providing free health care for all, which would create as many as 10 million new jobs with the enforcement of affirmative action.

Every single delegate to the Minnesota DFL State Convention in Duluth should have to pass through a gauntlet of warriors for peace and social justice, insisting on the change they voted for. If we can’t get peace with social justice out of the Democratic Party, we are going to have to look elsewhere —possibly start a new political party.

Alan L. Maki

Warroad, Minnesota.

The writer is a delegate to the 2010 Minnesota DFL State Convention in Duluth.

The class struggle.

An open letter to: The organizers of the “Minnesota Tea Parties.”

Thursday, April 16, 2009

An open letter to:

The organizers of the “Minnesota Tea Parties.”

What kind of ideas do you people have if you are afraid to debate and fear the ideas of others?

You are no better than, certainly no alternative to, Barack Obama and the pathetic Democrats and the even more corrupt and disgraced Republicans.

Come on, put your ideas up against a real socialist.

I challenge you to hold debates in everyone of the Minnesota communities where you had your big-business/Wall Street financed “Tea Parties.”

Just give me the dates and times and I will be there to debate any of you on the issues you claim to be so concerned about.

It is easy for you to rant and rave against the perverted caricature of socialism you have created without having to sit side by side with a socialist and debate the issues.

Here I am… let’s have at it… or are you afraid to put your ideas out where they can be challenged in the “public square.”

Alan L. Maki

Director of Organizing,

Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council

When I try to post this message on the Tea Bagger's blog I keep getting this message with my posting never posted:

Please Note: Your comment is awaiting moderation.

What I see in your Tea Party “movement” is:

1. racism2. vicious anti-communism3. warmongers4. people sucked in by Wall Street5. a gross distortion of “patriotism.”

I would encourage all of you to read “Citizen Tom Paine” by Howard Fast and his other historical novels on the American Revolution to get some kind of basic grounding and understanding as to what constitutes fighting for freedom, justice and liberty.

You really have a very shallow understanding of the issues.

For instance—

Why no mention of this “little” fact:

Our government is wasting trillions of dollars maintaining over 800 U.S. military bases on foreign soil dotting the globe in countries where we have no business when, instead, we should be establishing 800 public health care centers spread out across the United States providing free health care for everyone.

It is easy for you all to say things like you do using assumed names and monikers… I am wondering if you would dare to say such pathetically stupid, harmful and hurtful things if you had to sign your real names and provide contact information?

I would challenge any of you to debate these issues: anytime, anyplace anywhere.

Barack Obama and the greedy Wall Street pigs he represents

Banner used for promoting my blog.

One have a few new banners for promoting my blog... click to enlarge; watch for my displays at gatherings, demonstrations, forums--- when you see my displays stop to chat.

The United States has 800 military bases on foreign soil...

What we need--- instead--- is 800 public health care centers spread out across the United States where people can universally access, for free, all their health care needs from pre-natal care, to general health care to eye, dental and mental care right through to burial.

Instead of moving in this progressive direction, President Barack Obama and the United States Congress are moving in a most reactionary direction towards establishing military bases in outer space as they seek to insure the profits of both the merchants of death and destruction and the profit-driven health care industries... talk about skewed priorities and your wacky ideas devoid of common sense.

In addition to these 800 U.S. military bases on foreign soil, Barack Obama and the United States Congress continue funding--- with our tax-dollars--- the Israeli killing machine to the tune of tens of billions of dollars.

A network of 800 public health care centers spread out across the United States would create over four-million good-paying, decent jobs--- talk about your "economic stimulus" package!

We would be planting the seeds of socialism while helping to eradicate poverty as we keep people healthy and get them well when sick.

Think about this kind of solution in relation to what Barack Obama, the U.S. Congress and the Wall Street bankers and coupon clippers are offering the American people, and the peoples of the world... just what is the reason for bailing out the banks and AIG and maintaining more than 800 expensive U.S. military bases of foreign soil?

The Mt. Carmel Clinic in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada offers us a glimpse at what militarization and wars continue to rob us of.

The problems created by Wall Street will not be solved as long as the military-financial-industrial complex is allowed to squander human and natural resources on militarism and wars... we might just as well be dumping these resources out into the ocean... at least no one would die in wars.

These merchants of death and destruction must be stopped if humanity is to survive in a livable world.

The time has come to talk about the working class Marxist politics and economics of livelihood... capitalism has failed humanity miserably and left us a real mess.

Something for working people to think about and discuss around the dinner table... the capitalist sooth-Sayers certainly are not going to broach such solutions to the problems of working people as they hide behind the skirt of Rosy Scenario as this global capitalist economic depressionintensifies.

Alan Maki

My old friend... Coleman Young

A real fighter for working people

Olive Trees Outside Bethlehem Wall

You won't see this photograph on any American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) post card. Click on picture to read the article: Obama Needs Some Internet Virtual Reality On This Trip

Commentary on American culture...

Minnesotans say: End the war in Iraq... IMPEACH Bush & Cheney

Minnesotans demand an end to the war in Iraq

This demonstration is at the offices of United States Senator Republican Norm Coleman who has been one of Bush's main boosters for the war but is apparently beginning to waffle as Election Day approaches. Several peace activists are set to challenge Coleman... including DFL'ers Jim Cohen, Al Franken & Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, and Mike Cavlan of the Green Party

A new banner to promote my blog

Banner for promoting my blog.

One have a few new banners for promoting my blog... click to enlarge; watch for my displays at gatherings, demonstrations, forums--- when you see my displays stop to chat.

Simple Crusty Bread

[This recipe, from the New York Times, really is simple and produces a crusty crust and soft interior. It uses the bare minimum of ingredients, and no kneading, and works fine with either free-standing or pan loaves. Next time I may enhance it with sun-dried tomatoes, or Kalamata olives, or onions.]

1½ tablespoons yeast

1½ tablespoons salt

6½ cups unbleached, all-purpose flour, more for dusting dough

Cornmeal.

* * * Directions * * *

1. In a large bowl or plastic container, mix yeast and salt into 3 cups lukewarm water.

Stir in flour, mixing until there are no dry patches.

Dough will be quite loose. Cover, but not with an airtight lid.

Let dough rise at room temperature 2 hours (or up to 5 hours).

2. Bake at this point; or refrigerate, covered, for as long as two weeks.

When ready to bake, sprinkle a little flour on dough and cut off a grapefruit-size piece with serrated knife.

Turn dough in hands to lightly stretch surface, creating a rounded top and a lumpy bottom.

Put dough on pizza peel sprinkled with cornmeal; let rest 40 minutes.

Repeat with remaining dough or refrigerate it.

3. Place broiler pan on bottom of oven. [Instead of this, I spritzed the oven with water several times during the baking.]

Place baking stone on middle rack and turn oven to 450 degrees; heat stone at that temperature for 20 minutes.

4. Dust dough with flour, slash top with serrated or very sharp knife three times [once worked fine].

Slide onto stone.

Pour one cup hot water into broiler pan and shut oven quickly to trap steam.

Bake until well browned, about 30 minutes.

Cool.

Yield: 4 loaves.

Variation: If not using stone, stretch rounded dough into oval and place in a greased loaf pan.

Let rest 40 minutes if fresh, an extra hour if refrigerated.

Heat oven to 450 degrees for 5 minutes.

Place pan on middle rack.

Here is a good recipe for Au Gratin Potatoes:

Nine ingredients…

A. 9 large potatoes

B. 1 16 oz container sour cream

C. 2 cans cheddar cheese soup

D. 1/2 cup melted butter

E. 2 tsp salt

F. pepper to taste

G. 1 pint half and half or regular milk or evaporated

H. onion – optional

I. 12 oz package of mild shredded cheddar cheese

Seven easy steps…

1. Cut uncooked potatoes in thin slices

2. Spray 9x13 pan with oil spray

3. Layer cut potatoes in oiled pan

4. Mix above ingredients together

5. Pour ingredients on top of potatoes

6. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour or until potatoes are soft and done

Flint Sit-down Strike Memorial

UAW first contract with General Motors

Signing for the Union was Wyndham Mortimer, head organizer and member of the Communist Party USA

Boycott Israel... stop the pogroms against the Palestinian people...

From Leonard Cohen's, "The Energy of Slaves"

Any system you contrive without us

Any system you contrive without uswill be brought downWe warned you beforeand nothing that you built has stoodHear it as you lean over your blueprintHear it as you roll up your sleeveHear it once againAny system you contrive without uswill be brought downYou have your drugsYou have your gunsYou have your Pyramids your PentagonsWith all your grass and bulletsyou cannot hunt us any moreAll that we disclose of ourselves foreveris this warningNothing that you built has stoodAny system you contrive without uswill be brought down

Coney-Roney

recipe below

Recipe for Coney-Roney:

Crock Pot Method

Put the beef and turkey meet in the crock pot and let it cook for at least 35 minutes:1 lb of Angus Ground Beef1 lb of Premium Ground Turkey

Season the meat with this:1 tablespoon of Curry1 tablespoon of Lawry's1 tablespoon of black pepper

Then add the Veggies:

1 - small or large can of corn (drained)1 - Jar of Paul Newman's Tomato Sauce1- Can of diced tomatos1 - diced Onion1 - Cut up bunch of Cilantro2 - "Hand full's of either Minute Rice or Regular Rice

After the meat has cooked for 35 minutes just throw the rest of the stuff in including the sauce and put the lid back on the crock pot. The food will be ready to eat in about an hour. Remember, the longer you let it cook at low in the crock pot, the flavor will get better.

As posted to FaceBook by Donald Allen

A program for real change...

* Peace--- end the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya and shutdown the 800 U.S. military bases on foreign soil.

* A National Public Health Care System - ten million new jobs.

* A National Public Child Care System - three to five million new jobs.

* WPA - three million new jobs.

* CCC - two million new jobs.

* Tax the hell out of the rich and cut the military budget by ending the wars to pay for it all which will create full employment.

* Enforce Affirmative Action; end discrimination.

* Raise the minimum wage to a real living wage

* What tax-payers subsidize in the way of businesses, tax-payers should own and reap the profits from.

* Moratorium on home foreclosures and evictions.

* Defend democracy by defending workers' rights including the right to collective bargaining for improving the lives and livelihoods of working people.

* Roll-back and freeze the price of food, electricity, gas and heating fuels; not wages, benefits or pensions.

* Wall Street is our enemy.

Let's talk about the politics and economics of livelihood for a real change.

A message from Wisconsin...

NASTURTIUM CHICKEN KEBABS

1 LB Chicken Breasts Fillets,Cubed

1/3 Cup Herb Vinegar

1/3 Cup Garlic Oil

1 Tablespoon Soy Sauce

1 Teaspoon Crushed Fresh Ginger

1 Tablespoon Sherry

24 Button Mushrooms

24 Cherry Tomatoes

1 Green Pepper,Cubed

1 Red Pepper,Cubed

12 Pickling Onions

2 Tablespoon Chopped Chives

8 Nasturtium Flowers,Chopped

Pickled Nasturtium Seeds,Chopped

1/4 Cup Plain Yogurt

Salt and Pepper to Taste

Nasturtium Leaves

Marinate the chicken in a glass dish overnight in the combined vinegar,garlic oil,soy sauce,ginger and sherry.

Drain the chicken and reserve the marinade.

Thread the chicken and vegetables alternately onto 8 skewers.

Grill or barbecue the kebabs,brushing with the reserved marinade,until cooked through.

Combine the chives,nasturtium flowers and seeds then mix the plain yogurt and salt and pepper to make a dressing.

Remove the kebabs from the skewers and serve on the nasturtium leaves.

Citizens in Minnesota are being encouraged to see scarcity as the new normal. If you are an elected official at any level of government, your job has been reduced to managing austerity.

It doesn't have to be this way -- if we address the elephant lurking in the budget deficit hall. That would be the high costs of militarization and war.

Technically, the military budget is a federal issue, distinct from state, county and city budgets. However, we can no longer maintain the fiction that distorted federal spending that prioritizes war and militarism is disconnected from state and local budget crises and is eroding living standards.

According to the nonpartisan National Priorities Project, Congress devotes 58 cents of every dollar of federal discretionary spending to war-related purposes. To better understand the impact on Minnesota of privileging military spending priorities, consider this: We have just experienced a painful government shutdown over how to deal with a two-year $5 billion shortfall. Yet Minnesota taxpayers over the same two-year period will spend $8.4 billion just for our share of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

This will bring Minnesotans' total contribution to those wars to about $36 billion. Additionally over the next two years, Minnesotans will pay $26 billion for our share of the nation's base military budget, a budget that has doubled since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Every Minnesota citizen and every layer of government is impacted negatively by current war-related priorities. Faced with pressing local needs, taxpayers in Fergus Falls will pay $17 million for their share of counterproductive Iraq/Afghan wars over the next two years; Minneapolis taxpayers will contribute $255 million.

We believe it is time for Minnesotans to communicate clearly to our members of Congress and to President Obama that federal funding priorities must shift from unnecessary wars to meeting essential needs. A new citizen-driven effort, the Minnesota Arms Spending Alternatives Project (MNasap), is a vehicle for doing so.

We have crafted a simple resolution that can be adapted and enacted by individuals, community groups, library boards, city councils and other elected bodies throughout the state. It reads in part: "Whereas our nation desperately needs to better balance its approach to security to go beyond military defense and include the economic, social, and environmental needs of our communities, state, and nation ... Therefore [we] call on Senators Klobuchar and Franken, and Representatives Walz, Kline, Paulsen, McCollum, Ellison, Bachmann, Peterson and Cravaack as well as President Barack Obama, to shift federal funding priorities from war and the interests of the few, to meeting the essential needs of us all."

The state government shutdown has ended, but the pain will be ongoing for many Minnesotans. As a recent Star Tribune editorial ("New budget rests on shaky structure," July 20) states, borrowing against future state revenues and delaying school payments will have serious consequences, and the budget "inflicts too much pain. The hurt will be felt most keenly on college campuses and among those who serve low-income disabled and elderly people."

Imagine what we can accomplish if we stop squandering wealth and talents on militarization and counterproductive wars. Schools could reduce class sizes and have adequate supplies. Bridges could be repaired. Food shelves could be adequately stocked but rarely needed. We could take steps to make homelessness rare and temporary. Cities and states could adequately provide essential services, including meeting their authentic security needs. Critical investments could be made in infrastructure and green technologies. Public libraries could expand hours and programming. Urban and national rail systems could be built. The country could address climate change and end child poverty. All Americans could have access to quality, affordable health care.

This sounds like a fantasy only because current choices keep us on the dead-end road of militarization. It is a realistic possibility once we demilitarize priorities, realistically assess security needs and refocus governing on serving the common good.

Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer is associate professor of justice and peace studies at the University of St. Thomas. Bill Hilty, DFL-Finlayson, is a member of the Minnesota House. For information on the resolution campaign, contact MinnesotaASAP@gmail.com

Previously Pallmeyer and Hilty authored this resolution:

Resolution Calling for Re-ordering Priorities

Resolution Calling for Re-ordering PrioritiesResolution Calling for Re-ordering of Priorities:

Whereas past budget cuts have resulted in painful reductions in essential services and future cuts would further erode the quality of life for and, in fact, endanger the lives of many citizens; and,

Whereas many cities and communities in Minnesota are laying off police, firefighters, teachers and other essential employees; and,

Whereas past budgets have been balanced by cutting social services, under investment in essential infrastructure, and other measures that push the crisis onto local governments and the poor; and,

Whereas Minnesota taxpayers even during these times of economic crisis and fiscal austerity are poised to pay the equivalent of the entire state biennial budget, more than $35 billion over the next two years, for their share of the Defense Budget of the Federal government; and,

Whereas Minnesota taxpayers alone have already spent more than $27.5 billion, and will spend $8.4 billion more over the next two years for the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; and,

Whereas 58 cents of every dollar of federal discretionary spending is devoted to military purposes; and,

Whereas military spending priorities at the national level negatively impact budgets and quality of life at all levels of government and society; and,

Whereas our nation desperately needs to better balance its approach to security to go beyond military defense and include the economic, social, and environmental needs of our communities, state, and nation;

Therefore be it resolved that we, the Legislature of the State of Minnesota call on Senators Klobuchar and Franken, and Representatives Walz, Kline, Paulsen, McCollum, Ellison, Bachmann, Peterson and Cravaack as well as Congressional leadership and President Barack Obama, to shift federal funding priorities from war and the interests of the few, to meeting the essential needs of us all.

Approved [date]

Drafted by Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party State Representative Bill Hilty.

A more comprehensive alternative I put together based on talks with people across the Great Lakes Region:

A program for real change...

* Peace--- end the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya and shutdown the 800 U.S. military bases on foreign soil.

* A National Public Health Care System - ten million new jobs.

* A National Public Child Care System - three to five million new jobs.

* Works Progress Administration - three million new jobs.

* Civilian Conservation Corps - two million new jobs.

* Tax the hell out of the rich and cut the military budget by ending the wars to pay for it all which will create full employment.

* Enforce Affirmative Action; end discrimination.

* Raise the minimum wage to a real living wage

* What tax-payers subsidize in the way of businesses, tax-payers should own and reap the profits from.

* Moratorium on home foreclosures and evictions.

* Defend democracy by defending workers' rights including the right to collective bargaining for improving the lives and livelihoods of working people.

* Roll-back and freeze the price of food, electricity, gas and heating fuels; not wages, benefits or pensions.

* Wall Street is our enemy.

How is Barack Obama's Wall Street war economy working for you?

Let's talk about the politics and economics of livelihood for a real change.

Obviously the resolutions by Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer and Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party State Representative Bill Hilty will never be realized as government policy while we are stuck in this "two-party trap" because militarism and wars are an integral and primary component of Wall Street's imperialist agenda.

Basic Pizza Dough

Warm a medium mixing bowl by swirling some hot water in it. Drain. Place the yeast in the bowl, and pour on the warm water. Stir in the sugar, mix with a fork, and allow to stand until the yeast has dissolved and starts to foam, 5-10 minutes. Use a wooden spoon to mix in the salt and about one-third of the flour. Mix in another third of the flour, stirring with the spoon until the dough forms a mass and begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Sprinkle some of the remaining flour onto a smooth work surface. Remove the dough from the bowl and begin to knead it, working in the remaining flour a little at a time. Knead for 8-10 minutes. By the end the dough should be elastic and smooth. Form it into a ball. Lightly oil a mixing bowl. Place the dough in the bowl. Stretch a moistened and wrung-out dish towel across the top of the bowl, and leave it to stand in a warm place until the dough has doubled in volume, about 40-50 minutes or more, depending on the type of yeast you used. (If you do not have a warm enough place, turn the oven on to medium heat for 10 minutes before you knead the dough. Turn it off. Place the bowl with the dough in it in the turned off oven with the door closed and let it rise there.) To test whether the dough has risen enough, poke two fingers into the dough. If the indentions remain, the dough is ready. Punch the dough down with your fist to release the air. Knead for 1-2 minutes. Divide dough into smaller balls.

Roll to desired thickness, top with desired ingredients, and bake at 475° until crust is crispy and golden (about 10 minutes).

The trick is to ALWAYS use a pizza stone to bake on, it is not nearly as good and crispy if you don’t...